Heartland Secure Offers Merchants Card Data Security

Three technologies guard against fraud, monetization

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Heartland Payment Systems has introduced Heartland Secure--a comprehensive credit/debit card data security solution that combines three technologies working together to provide convenience store retailers and other merchants with the highest level of protection available against card-present data fraud.

Featuring a breach warranty, this solution is designed to provide merchants with protection against point-of-sale (POS) intrusions, crimeware, miscellaneous errors, insider misuse and other common sources of card-present data fraud by eliminating the opportunity for criminals to monetize card data.

Offered to Heartland customers for no additional processing fees as part of Heartland's comprehensive solutions, Heartland Secure combines:

EMV electronic chip card technology to prove that a consumer's card is genuine.

Heartland's E3 end-to-end encryption technology, which immediately encrypts card data as it is entered so that no one else can read it.

Tokenization technology, which replaces card data with "tokens" that can be used for returns and repeat purchases, but are unusable by outsiders because they have no value.

"Security breaches against large retailers like Target and Neiman-Marcus get most of the publicity, but there were more than 679 data security incidents reported in the retail and accommodation merchant sectors in 2013, and 285 of them involved confirmed data losses," said Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems. "Unfortunately, the real breach numbers may be much higher, and the FBI believes we can expect more credit card breaches in the U.S. We designed Heartland Secure as a security solution for customers using POS and other card-present processing methods."

Heartland customers have benefitted from E3 and tokenization for a number of years, with EMV acceptance enabled within the last 12 months. The company has combined them into a seamless end-to-end security option called Heartland Secure.

EMV chip cards fight fraud at the point of sale by verifying that the presented card is genuine. The smartcard chip contains dynamic data that is validated in a more secure manner than the static data of a magnetic stripe, which makes the card data harder to counterfeit. Heartland's new POS systems are capable of processing EMV cards, which will be a required standard for most U.S. businesses by Oct. 2015. Noncompliant merchants will bear all financial liability for all fraudulent transactions.

E3 encrypts cardholder information at the earliest point of the transaction--at card swipe, key entry, tap or insertion--so that it is never in readable form to crimeware programs. Terminals and customer card entry devices carrying the E3 brand are PCI SRED approved or feature a tamper-resistant security module housed within the terminal, reader or PIN pad so that the device can't be converted into a skimming instrument. Card information is always encrypted and never transmitted or stored in a useful form. So even if a hacker got the information, it is meaningless and of no usable commercial or financial value.

Tokenization protects card data after a transaction is authorized by substituting a token for a card's number. If a system is compromised and tokens are taken, they have no real value in the outside world.

"There is no single technology solution to payment transaction security," said Carr. "EMV, E3 and tokenization are all good security technologies individually, but combined in the Heartland Secure system they operate together to place usable card data out of the reach of data criminals. In short, Heartland Secure eliminates the monetization of card data as a result of skimming, POS intrusions and 'man in the middle' attacks while reducing a merchant's PCI compliance costs and worries."

Princeton, N.J.-based Heartland Payment Systems, the fifth largest payments processor in the United States, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, mobile commerce, e-commerce, marketing solutions, security technology, payroll solutions and related business solutions and services to more than 275,000 business and educational locations nationwide.

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